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HD locals not in HD....

While watching Today this morning the show was in HD then commercial with the side bars comes on. Back to Today and it's got the bars. What is going on? Is someone physically flipping a switch to toggle SD or HD at the local station?

While watching Today this morning the show was in HD then commercial with the side bars comes on. Back to Today and it's got the bars. What is going on? Is someone physically flipping a switch to toggle SD or HD at the local station?

While watching Today this morning the show was in HD then commercial with the side bars comes on. Back to Today and it's got the bars. What is going on? Is someone physically flipping a switch to toggle SD or HD at the local station?

IIRC, Mark, you're in the OKC market. I know that no Tulsa station has switched to HD news coverage and I don't believe that any OKC station has gone to HD either. Most national commercials, and all local commercials, are shot in 4:3 aspect ratio at this time, but national advertisers are starting to switch to 16:9.

DIRECTV employee April 2004-November 2012.
The above comments are my own because I don't know if anyone would care about my opinions anymore.

IIRC, Mark, you're in the OKC market. I know that no Tulsa station has switched to HD news coverage and I don't believe that any OKC station has gone to HD either. Most national commercials, and all local commercials, are shot in 4:3 aspect ratio at this time, but national advertisers are starting to switch to 16:9.

It looks like all my local affiliates have automated this process now.

A year ago, however, it was clearly all manual, and it was common for a prime time show to come back from a commercial in SD and then flip to HD anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes later when the technician in the control room remembered to flip the switch!

I see this a lot with locals. CBS in Reno is particularly bad for it, but NBC has run whole episodes in SD letterboxed on their HD station here. The main problem comes up when they switch on the banner at the bottom with the time/temp, and what is coming up on the news. Then the banner goes away, but the picture stays SD and the sound stays 2.0. Very unprofessional, and very annoying. I remember trying to watch the Unit on election night. Man, 2 minutes of HD 5.1, broken up with 15 minutes of SD, 2.0, to show election results at the bottom!

Did it happen in the break after one of the anchors said, "This is Today on NBC"? If so, then it was a local break. I used to work as a Master Control operator at a NBC station, and the "This is Today" verbal cue for a local break dates all the way back to day one of the program, in 1952. Even with automation systems and computerization, the Today show hews to its long history by giving the verbal cue for every local break.

DIRECTV employee April 2004-November 2012.
The above comments are my own because I don't know if anyone would care about my opinions anymore.

I see this a lot with locals. CBS in Reno is particularly bad for it, but NBC has run whole episodes in SD letterboxed on their HD station here. The main problem comes up when they switch on the banner at the bottom with the time/temp, and what is coming up on the news. Then the banner goes away, but the picture stays SD and the sound stays 2.0. Very unprofessional, and very annoying. I remember trying to watch the Unit on election night. Man, 2 minutes of HD 5.1, broken up with 15 minutes of SD, 2.0, to show election results at the bottom!

I just don't know why they would have election results crawling on the HD feed. I can understand it being on the SD feed but there is no point to scroll them on the HD feed. If you wanted to see the results you would switch to the SD feed.

I just don't know why they would have election results crawling on the HD feed. I can understand it being on the SD feed but there is no point to scroll them on the HD feed. If you wanted to see the results you would switch to the SD feed.

FCC rules dictate that they must do this for the "public interest". Not all stations follow this though and I'm glad my local CBS doesn't drop out of HD to tell me it's really windy out or raining hard.